What China is doing to the Uyghurs is not a genocide

It IS "deeply problematic" in many ways, contra the capitalist grifters for Xi Jinping, like Max Blumenthal, let alone, the Xi Jinping Thought stanners like Howie Hawkins and Margaret Flowers, or worse yet, some mix of Max's grifting by clickbait and reflexive pandering to anti-Americanism by the likes of Aaron Maté.

But, it is not, contra parts of the bipartisan foreign policy establishment, let alone the Religious Right's foreign policy establishment for Jesus, a genocide. Not even part one of a five-part installment proves that.

It is, contra the nutters, grifters and true believers in the first paragraph, forced labor by people who are inside work camps in many cases. Arguably, they're inside concentration camps of some sort. It is possibly cultural genocide, but I've not come down firmly on that, even. It is NOT, contra the bullshit of the Matés of the world, necessary to control Islamic extremists, or secular secessionists if they exist under separate cover, that make up a small portion of Xinjiang's population.

Genocide is what the Nazis did to the Jews. It's what the Ottomans did their best to do to the Armenians before that. It's what the Hutu later did to the Tutsi in Rwanda.

What's happening in Xinjiang, even with forced abortions, is not a genocide. The UN Convention includes "intent to destroy." Intent is always tough to prove legally. Tis true that the fourth point in an early section does include forced lack of birth. But China only relatively recently officially lifted its one-child policy.

Abortion and women's mental health: A 'gold standard' study that really isn't

Does abortion traumatize or "wound" many women? A major longitudinal study says probably not, BUT Annie Lowrey at the Atlantic overstates the case; 14 percent feeling sadness five years later is NOT a nothingburger. In addition, what all does "feel sadness" mean? Is it deep or light on depth? Persistent or fleeting on occurrence? And, two of three having few or no emotions about it means one in three did. And, there's other problems with her framing. What does "wound" mean? And, what percentage of women declined to participate? What percentage of women failed to complete all questions?

As someone in the great muddied middle, these things are also problematic. I support eliminating "waiting period" laws, not on the alleged ground that no women have sadness later, sadness that may even be regret. Rather, I support eliminating them on the grounds that women are autonomous and can, in theory, both think and emote through "playing it forward" before having an abortion.

If the Turnaway Study doesn't have more details itself, then being the "gold standard" is certainly relativistic and based on being the only such study. And, as you can see by me posting that second link, Turnaway doesn't have percentages on this themselves, nor answer the other questions about "sadness."

So, in my great muddied middle world, this is really a "silver standard" study.

Russia-Ukraine, week 14: MSM gets defensive, Biden gets one-sided again

This Medium piece has the details. The rah-rah NYT blaming Ukrainians for not giving the US enough intelligence after previously swallowing Ukrainian claims lock, stock and barrel. Individual reporters from elsewhere admitting that for weeks now, they've known that Ukrainian official PR BS was as bad as Russia's, but they passed it on up their food chains without comment. 

Commenting on two of them, Peterson notes:

These two work for one of the most influential news outlets in the world. If they were hesitant or thinking these things, why wouldn’t they write about it BEFORE the US pledged fifty-four freaking billion dollars in aid? From day one, everything they said in this episode was incredibly obvious to teenage Twitch streamers, pothead comedians in their garages, and my dumbass over here in Central Europe.

Sounds about right.

But, since Warmonger Joe and the Fraud Squad (also seem them called the Squat) have indicated that half the GOP takes marching orders on this issue from Cucker Tarlson, this has become a tribalist issue not just with #BlueAnon voters but with #TeamBlue political hacks like David Sirota. (Check his feed for how much, or how little, he says about Russia-Ukraine. I can't, because he blocked me over telling the truth about him!)

Speaking of the Fraud, feel free to hit the poll at right.

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Meanwhile, Biden's now back in full Warmonger Joe. He sent AG Merrick Garland over to Ukraine, in part to establish a US special prosecutor's position to prosecute Russian war crimes.

This of course begs the question of who's going to prosecute Ukrainian war crimes? And yes they exist.

It also begs the question of why old Merrick can find time to do this, but "somehow" he can't bring his DOJ to officially indict former Trump chief of shit/staff Mark Meadows for contempt of Congress.

The two issues are really tied together. The former is of course the bipartisan foreign policy establishment, or Nat-Sec Nutsacks™ as I call them. The second is protecting the presidency, powers of the presidency, executive privilege, etc., which the nat-secs will support if it furthers American exceptionalism and American imperialism.

Coronavirus Week 113: Odds and ends

Meet Dr. Leana Wen, COVID ConservaDem careerist. Is it too harsh to say that the Biden Administration has its own version of "let 'er rip"? I'm not sure. The argument against the "cases don't matter" stance says it maybe does have a "let 'er rip" lite. On the other hand, as I blogged a couple of weeks ago and as numbers continue to support, COVID is becoming less and less deadly. That's especially true if the "cases don't matter" have trickled down to local hospitals, as I also blogged a couple of weeks ago.

NIH is inexplicably slow in handing out grants to study issues related to Long COVID. Guess if you don't "find" it, it doesn't exist? See "Gulf War syndrome," "Agent Orange syndrome" and more.

Delayed positives, after early negatives, despite being apparently symptomatic, is the latest new thing with COVID and seems to be Omicron-specific. The Atlantic looks at what it means.

The World Health Organization still things the lab-leak hypothesis is realistic enough it wants it investigated further. China responded with a propaganda barrage, saying maybe it leaked from Fort Detrick.

If you live in Aridzona? MOVE

If you can't admit you're in the most socialistic state in the nation (you are), or even if you can, but know your neighbors, and more importantly, your state legislature, can't or won't, you need to move.

That's as BuRec says MAJOR new water cuts are coming. And, per this piece, as Aridzonans aren't close to meeting the self-mandated cuts of a year ago.

The best way of reducing water in Aridzona? (Not that it's going to meet these targets.)
1. Fallowing ALL FARMS. ALL.

2. People moving. Sorry, and with family there. Aridzona's not close to meeting its current water cut targets and people living in arguably the most socialist state in the nation aren't adjusting.

2A. The federal government refusing to guarantee new mortgages in Aridzona. Ed Abbey was 127 percent right on this: "Growth for growth's sake is the theology of the cancer cell." Dear Leader probably could have figured out a way to do something about this in the Great Recession. Truly make homeowers "whole" if they moved back to where the water is, and refusing to buy loans on new developments until the feds signed off on water supply.

Besides, it's not just getting hotter (and more humid) it's getting more unhealthy. Ever acre of fallowed farmland is another acre of agrichemical dust blowing into Phoenix. That's not to count the Salton Sea, which will never be "fixed" and which the Imperial Irrigation District is using as a smokescreen, in my opinion.

Prer Ed Abbey, as illustrated by the IID, this "growth culture" isn't going away. We need to kill it dead.

Aridzona could easily stand to lose 2 million people, and not all from Phoenix. Tucson could lose a few hundred thousand; Central Arizona Project water takes yet more energy to pump it past Phoenix to there, and further uphill to boot. Yuma could lose some people. The Vegas exurbs on both sides of the river. Vegas itself could stand to lose half a million. The godawful monstrosity called St. George, Utah, needs to lose at least half its population.

Texas Progressives talk state GOP, Uvalde, environment

State GOP convention

The Trib has a roundup of major platform planks which doesn't even note that the Rethugs shifted even further rightward on adult gay rights. Well, wait, that was in a second piece that noted the Rethugs called being gay or lesbian "an abnormal lifestyle choice," along with claiming Biden's win was illegitimate and booing Big Schmuck John Cornyn for trying to pass a weak tea gun control bill at the federal level even as he backs away from it. A third piece's header nails it: "Texas Republicans meet in a climate of mistrust, conspiracy and victimhood."

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Much of the above stands in contrast to last Sunday having been Juneteenth, which gives an opening to teach actual history. (Unfortunately, it's not during the school year.) After two years of COVID hiatus, Juneteenth returned to Comanche Crossing at Lake Mexia.

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Is a coverup fix on over Uvalde? Will Alito et al use fake originalism to further gut gun control?

Off the Kuff wrote about the utter uselessness of DPS at Uvalde, and the ongoing effort to keep secrets about what did happen by those who were there.

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SocraticGadfly has a pair of environmental postings. First, he extends a heaping helping of summer schadenfreude to all the Californians who moved to Austin and elsewhere in the last 18 months and are learning about real Texas summer. Second, he remains opposed to an Ike Dike both on its own grounds and as part of general boondoggling by the Corps of Engineers.

Meet the yucca whisperer.

Meet the do-nothings at Chevron and the RRC, trying to ignore saltwater blowouts in the Permian.

The Texas Signal warns of the "endgame" for reproductive rights and abortion access.

The Observer reports that abortion activists are nonetheless still hard at work doing what they do.

Texas 2036 worries we are not preparing for the kind of droughts that are to come.

Reform Austin points out how much of Greg Abbott's border "mission" turns out to be arrests for marijuana possession.

D Magazine connects Texas' anti-abortion laws to greater trauma with miscarriages.